Bloomberg: Meet the Swiss Billionaire Cast by US Conservatives as the ‘New Soros
His eyes are fixed in an icy stare, his lips curl toward a snarl. Beneath the frosty-blue portrait is a warning: “Foreign Influence in US Elections.”
What follows is a brief dossier on the mysterious figure in the picture — a “radical” Swiss billionaire with a “dark money ATM” and a secret plan for America, it says.
Meet Hansjörg Wyss, the man US conservatives are casting as a new George Soros, the businessman-turned-philanthropist who has become a familiar villain for the right. The eight-page report was prepared by Americans for Public Trust. …
As the 2024 US presidential election looms, so do sobering questions about the potential for more election interference. The US intelligence community has warned that Russia is again using spies, social media and state-run media to undermine democratic elections around the world.
But the conservative campaign against Wyss offers a glimpse into something closer to home: how hard-to-trace “dark money” is wielded on both the right and the left in today’s polarized America.
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“The New George Soros,” another conservative watchdog group, Capital Research Center, branded Wyss in 2022. Americans for Public Trust brought a complaint to the Federal Election Commission in 2021 alleging Wyss’s groups were violating US campaign finance regulations prohibiting contributions from foreign nationals.
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Wyss’s declarations haven’t dissuaded conservative groups from going after him. “Time and time again, Wyss has made broad claims without any evidence, and now he is attacking the only public report exposing his political activity,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of APT. “Wyss has openly bragged about being able to operate under the radar and is upset after being exposed.”
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Republicans on Capitol Hill have been going after Wyss too. Several House committees have announced they’re looking into the Swiss billionaire and his influence. The House Ways and Means Committee is considering whether the law should prevent foreign nationals from creating tax-exempt advocacy groups. An election-reform bill co-sponsored by 127 House Republicans would bar all tax-exempt entities from spending money from foreign nationals on US elections. Such proposals have little chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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